Prayer for Our World
Now that Covid has moved more into the background of life, our Elementary Principal, Mindy, re-started our morning prayer song. The entire Elementary “tiwahe” (family) comes together, teachers and paraprofessionals as well as students. There is a cadre of boys and a few girls who lead the song and the rest of the students and teachers join in. After singing the prayer song, the students lead the group to recite a short prayer in Dakota. This short prayer was created by an elder and gifted to Tiospa Zina Tribal School.
Today, at the invitation of Pope Francis, Bishops around the world joined Pope Francis in consecrating Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Solemnity of the Annunciation, which is Friday, March 25. Pope Francis invited all bishops of the world and their priests to join him in this act of consecration on the same day and hour, if possible. Our Bishop here, for the Diocese of Sioux Falls, invited all parishioners to join him to pray together.
We could not pray the rosary, nor formally ask for Mary’s intervention, but I asked Mindy if we could join our prayers to those of others around the world today and pray for world peace.
So, we did. Here’s the video (I hope you can access it.)
On it you will mostly see the crowd of kids in a circle around our “Medicine Wheel” while you’ll hear the song as well as the oral prayer(s) of Mike Peters (relative of Sr. Irene) as he leads the prayer. You’ll also hear voices of our young singers.
Wakantanka tokaheya cewakiye do.
Wakantanka tokaheya cewakiye do.
Mitakuye ob wani kta ca tokaheya cewakiye do.
The words of the song (roughly) translate to:
God, look on us all with mercy. Help us. We need your help.
Holy One, Grandfather, look on us with mercy. Help us.
All my relatives, join with me to pray for help.
